1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an e-mail processing apparatus, which is applied to a MFP (Multi Function Peripheral), e.g. a multifunctional digital complex machine, and other image forming apparatuses; an e-mail processing method; and a recording medium having a program recorded therein to make a computer execute e-mail processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
With the spread of e-mail in recent years, in companies, offices and others, employees become to exchange more frequently e-mails with or without an attachment file using a mailing list, to achieve higher business productivity.
A heretofore known art that has been conventionally used is that members of mailing list are registered in a MFP and a series of e-mails are recorded in a recording area that is called “BOX”, so that the members of mailing list easily can track things backward.
According to the art, if a user transfers to a MFP an e-mail that is once distributed using a mailing list, the MFP generates a BOX for the mailing list, then stores in the BOX the received e-mail with a file attached to the e-mail. Subsequently, the MFP inquires a server for members (mail addresses) of the mailing list, then gives a permission to access the BOX to login users having the mail addresses. Further, the MFP inquires for members of the mailing list at predetermined intervals. Then, if there is a member newly added to the mailing list, the MFP adds the member as a login account of the MFP itself, and if the MFP is not a member of the mailing list, the MFP adds the mail address of the MFP itself in the mailing list.
Meanwhile, another art disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-67306 is that a file attached to a transmitted e-mail is picked up, and administration information about the attachment file that is picked up is generated, in order to administer the attachment file.
With the conventional methods described above, members of a mailing list can read the e-mails and the attachment files of the past. However, because such a large amount of e-mails and attachment files are exchanged and a large amount of files are stored in a BOX, it is needed to devote substantial time to search out a target file from the BOX.
To address the inconvenience, the last updated files are conventionally searched according to update dates/times, file versions, and others. However, in cases where files are updated by a series of the complex processings like in the way above, not only file versions are not administered correctly, but also attachment files cannot be tracked by update dates/times. Thus, it is the only one method to search out a target file to check contents of the respective files in chronological order.
In addition, with the art disclosed in the patent document mentioned above, although files are differentiated by the categories, it is still inconvenient that a target file cannot be searched out quickly because there are a lot of files with the same file names, and with the same updated time/date, and others. In addition, although a target can be narrowed down to some related files, there is still a need to take a view of all the related files consequently, and this is such a significant load of laborious work.
In circumstances where e-mails are used for business, even file names of attachment files and mail subjects are frequently changed in many cases. Thus, in order to achieve higher business productivity, it is inevitable to bother to track e-mails and attachment files that have been exchanged.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. Indeed, certain features of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages, while still retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.